All the Right Moves
by Simply Hopeless
Summary: Kyo didn't deserve Ayame's love but he'd take it & use it as a weapon to gain his freedom. He was every inch the monster Akito told him he was & he thought he was prepared for the hatred & sacrifices he'd have to make. But no amount of shuffling pawn pieces in his head could prepare him for the emptiness in Aya's eyes when the house of lies come tumbling down. Kyo/Ayame. Yaoi.


Hello, I'm Simply Hopeless a.k.a. Assassin's Kiss with a new story for you guys. It's a brand new year and so I thought why not a brand new story. I do not own Fruits Basket in any way; but I still love it to pieces and like creating fanfics about it. I also don't own 'Shark in the Water'; it's sung by V.V. Brown and just seemed to fit this first chapter.

I don't really see that many Kyo/Ayame stories or even that many Kyo being dominate. Which is weird because if you take away Tohru from the story, he's the protagonist and plus he's like an aggressive dominate who can defeat anyone but the effeminate Yuki. Sure he has the whole outcast, not good with people thing going on. But he's better with people than Yuki. Anyway, I just wanted to create a plausible story where these two unlikely people would hook up. It's sort of OOC, so my apologies. But I hope you enjoy and tell me what things in this chapter you like and/or want to see.

Also I'll hopefully be updating some of my FB stories Friday-Sunday. If you want this to be updated now instead of two weeks from now, then show me your love and tell me what you think.

**All the Right Moves**

'_High in the sky, the song that I'm singing__  
__A sweet little lie, I cry wolf, cry__  
__Rabbit in the hat, so that's why I'm bringing__  
__Some tricks up my sleeve, for noticing me__  
__I wouldn't cause you any harm, I just want you in my arms__  
__I can't help, I can't help myself_

___Baby, there's a shark in the water__  
__There's something underneath my bed__  
__Oh, please believe I said__  
__Baby, there's a shark in the water__  
__I caught them barking at the moon__  
__Better be soon'_

~Shark in the Water by V.V. Brown

**Chapter One**

Kyo had realized a while ago that he would never defeat Yuki the traditional way. No matter how much he had tried and no matter how much he had trained to win his freedom, he was smart enough to realize he was beating at a dead horse. Sure he could take on several people without breaking a sweat; or even subdue Hatsuharu when he had gone Black and inconsolable. But that damn rat was inhuman.

He was too everything… too strong, too smart, too pretty, too distant, too nice. Even when Yuki was asleep and seemingly defenseless, he could easily take on the cat. That fact irritated the redhead more than anything because it meant that the damn rat was actually holding back when he was conscious. He was a lethal Mister Rodger's who could offer a polite smile a moment before tossing his enemy up and dropkicking them into an unforgiving wall if his patience ran out. Despite that, Yuki had the nerve to try and be civil to the 'Sohma's dirty little secret' by offering his hand up in friendship more than once. Of course Kyo had slapped that hand away and tried his best to flame the seeds of hatred that Akito had so cleverly embedded into his young, naïve heart.

Honestly, what need did Kyo have of friendship when Yuki had probably never seriously entertained the idea of sacrificing himself to save someone he wished to befriend? No, hate was the only thing the cat was willing to give the 'Sohma favorite'. Hatsuharu could give in to Yuki's pretty words of friendship and fawn all over him. Shigure could try to chip at Kyo's defensive walls and nonchalantly question the real reason behind Kyo hating Yuki. But his hatred had never forsaken him. It was the driving force that made him want to fight against the odds when everyone else wanted him to give up.

Yes, he would fight. But not the way they thought because challenging his rival, Yuki, at this point was pointless. He was just simply going through the motions.

There was no heat behind his words, no real feelings; just a pretense he set up to lull his enemies into believing everything was status quo while he, himself, mulled over how to escape from the enclosing cage. There was no use in relying on his family for help because they had allowed the tradition of caging the monstrosity, which is the cat zodiac, to continue for hundreds of years with no clear signs of relief from any of the inner family, including his cousins.

There was not even the smallest ripple of change which would have came if they had did something as trivial as letting the cat join in on the New Years banquet he had been denied so many centuries ago. Not even the boar of a woman Kagura, who violently expressed her love for him each time they encountered each other, was brave enough to rally her courage and address 'God'. No, the only one who was foolish enough to try would have been the outsider Tohru. And as much as he cared and grown to love Tohru, he seriously doubted the impossibly naïve girl could help him escape his life sentence.

No, the right way for a cat to defeat a rat was through the art of manipulation. Other than himself, only Akito, Yuki's mother, and Ayame could easily get a rise from the rat. At first he would have included Shigure and Hatsuharu within the list, but they were minor nuisances compared to Akito, Yuki's mother and Ayame. He couldn't manipulate that bastard Akito because if he then he wouldn't be in this situation in the first place. He also had never bothered to address and didn't plan on addressing Yuki's mother, who had eagerly sacrificed her second born to the jackal, who was Akito, for advancement. But Ayame was so whimsical and passionate; if anyone could get to Yuki despite the rat's refusals and death threats then it would be his brother. He would be Kyo's Trojan Horse.

Technically speaking Kyo had nothing more to lose since his freedom was already forfeit. Sure his adoptive father would disapprove if he found out his son was playing with someone's feelings. But some hurts feelings was nothing compared to a life sentence of solitude for being born cursed.

Besides, he wasn't completely heartless. If things worked out maybe he could explain things amiably to Ayame and by some miracle the snake zodiac could understand that although their relationship started off on false pretenses, Kyo still cared for him. Well maybe not cared for him, not yet anyway. It will come in due time.

The cat could at least admit that the older man was attractive when he stayed still long enough to appreciate his features. And he wasn't really averse to having a homosexually incestuous relationship with his cousin. Especially when most of the zodiac predecessors ended up marrying cousins of both sexes due to the curses limitations to be intimate with someone of the opposite sex outside their cursed circle.

No, he had thought this out thoroughly. He had tried his best to ferret out another solution while he stared at the stars on the roof or went through the familiar moves of fighting when he was supposed to concentrate on fighting Yuki. But no matter the angle he looked at it, no matter how long he slept on it, or took his mind off of it with school work and ordinary living; he could only find one solution. It was the same solution that was currently wrapped around him like the 'snake' that he was. Probably the older male, once more denied from entering his otouto's room and refusing to have his best friend Shigure keep him up from much needed beauty sleep, sought sanctuary in the cat's room because it was the only plausible course. Heaven forbid he offered to sleep in Tohru's room again.

Garnet eyes carefully studied the older man that had been running through the freshly turned seventeen-year-old's mind for the last four months. The man had yet to tuck his silvery head under Kyo's chin to leach more warmth from the fiery teen so Kyo had the luxury and the pleasure of looking at the snake's face. It was almost an older version of Yuki's face, even amid the silky long strands of Ayame's hair. But surprisingly enough Kyo's stomach didn't clench in revulsion at the acknowledgment. There were enough subtle physical differences to make the red-head except this plan.

A fine, carroty eyebrow raised in bemusement as pouty, pale lips parted to murmur some whimsical nonsense before the silver haired beauty chuckled in a soft, sultry tone at the something witty thing he or his dream companion had said in his sleep. It was five in the morning, the time when Kyo would have already been making himself a morning snack before preparing his morning workout. But instead he hesitantly traced a callused thumb across the fatty bottom of Ayame's lip.

His body tensed naturally when it looked like the older man would awaken but when he only shifted closer, the cat zodiac hummed his approval. "Soon, soon," he murmured reassuringly to himself, even as he drew the snuggling man closer. His lips pressed against the crown of his older cousin's head before he tucked the silver head under his chin.

'This plan has to work. It just has to,' he thought. Now all he had to do was wait for his pawn to wake up to put his plans into motion.

It was more than an hour later before the snake zodiac woke up. He would have luxuriated longer in the warmth that swaddled him so perfectly from the chill of a winter's morning; but something internally told him something was wrong. His fine brow wrinkled thoughtfully thinking quickly did he leave his shop's door unlocked before dismissing that as an option. Did he leave the stove on? Or maybe he left the water running? But no, his assistant watched over him to make sure when he played at being 'domestic' he didn't accidentally burn or flood the shop attached to his living quarters.

But clearly something was nagging at his consciousness. Something that was not right and externally happening to make him slightly worried. So curiosity wetted, he opened up his luminous orbs and expectantly froze up like the unwilling masochist that he was. The cat, how could he forget the cat? He had crept into his cousin's bed to warm up after deciding on his own to spend the night over. But unfortunately Kyo's warmth had bidden him to stay asleep so once more he had no chance to pretend he had been sleeping on the pullout couch downstairs.

Ayame, tensed up naturally in the arms of his latest foe. There was no denial that the teen was awake. He always woke up at god-awful hours that coincidentally threw a wrench in 'operation body heat'. So eyes quickly screwed up against the pain that was sure to follow, he waited impatiently. But nothing came. Where were the cruel words, fists or a combination of both when he had drawn the grouchy teen into his arms? "Kyonkichi, a…are you alright?" He questioned the teen sheepishly. His timid words wafted in hot puffs of hair against the teen's naked collarbone.

Slowly he lifted his from its resting spot to see if indeed the redhead was awake and aware of the situation that Ayame had once again selfishly dragged him into. He internally squirmed as those garnet eyes captured his shying gaze and a strong hand tightened its grip on the tailor's hip.

"You know, I never realized this before but you smell good," Kyo said bluntly, speaking his mind. Just because he knew his goal was to seduce the older man didn't mean he was a natural-born flirt.

"I… um… thanks. It's a new cologne I'm trying out," Ayame mumbled in a hushed tone. The snake wasn't normally this quiet, but something about Kyo worried him. As if the older man was dealing with a time bomb that needed to be handled delicately for fear of it exploding in his face. Maybe his precious Otouto hit him too many times and Kyo finally lost all his marbles. The possibilities tumbled through his head, one more crazed than the last.

Unapologetically Kyo buried his nose against Ayame's hair, dragging the stiff man closer, in order to inhale his essence. "No, it smells too good to be just some froufrou cologne. Maybe after you take a shower I can compare how you smell now to how you'll smell when you're naked," Kyo offered, his burning red, lit with interest.

Ayame flushed, unsure of what to say to this new Kyo. Part of him wanted to instinctively push him away. But the animalistic side of him welcomed the warmth that radiated off the feline in palpable waves. 'Honestly Kyonkichi is better than any electric blanket,' he moaned forlornly in his head. It was one of the main reasons that he sought out Kyonkichi when he spent the night over Gure's house. Of course there was the fact that his Otouto locked him out and it would be inappropriate to sleep in the same bed as an untouched maiden. But between Gure and Kyonkichi, the feline was the most hot-blooded of the two, and was the best thing to curl around during cold winter mornings like this even at the risk at being woken up violently.

"I have to pee," squeaked out Ayame. It was very un-gentlemanly of him to announce the distress of his bladder. But he was afraid part of his brain was starting to short-circuit as he felt his grouchy cousin nuzzle his nose in his hair all the while something hard poked insistently at his hip.

He almost feared he'd have to try and fight this suddenly affectionate 'kitten'. He instincts told him to flee, as well as appease the temperamental teen. But just the mention of those four words and suddenly, strong, capable arms were slowly releasing him. Ayame quickly ignored the regret that tugged at his heart. But before he could retract his words or try to snuggle close to recapture the affectionate warmth, he was once more ensnared by Kyo's eyes.

Those damning garnet orbs, told Ayame that the teen highly doubted that the tailor needed to use the bathroom, just as easily as the scowl that creased his face. But those capable fingers that had been slowly stroking the older male, unbeknownst to him until they stopped, quickly plucked the cousin, who was half straddling his waist, and deposited him on the cold, bedroom floor.

Ayame shivered, his arms instinctively wrapping around himself. The short silken, robe that he wore over his pajama set did nothing to stop the snake from yearning for the furnace like heat of the teen. He hesitated, mind still lethargic. He took a step forward towards the teen, ready to boldly request the teen hold him for a little while longer. But then Ayame froze at the next words that sent him bolting out the door and seeking sanctuary inside the bathroom.

"Go before I put you over my knee for lying!" Kyo growled out his warning in a timbre that went straight to Ayame's happy place.

Trembling fingers locked the door behind him before he fanned his flushed face. His back was to the door as he slowly sunk unceremoniously to the floor. Maybe there was something in the water or possibly he was still sleepy because there was no way in hell Kyonkichi could have meant what he said. Not like that. Not in that way. He had never shown interest in the same sex and especially not in him. 'Not until today,' a voice in his head purred out happily.

"Damn hormones!" He swore under his breath. Not quite sure if he was cursing the teenager he left behind or the slowly-awakening hormones in him that had been lying dormant since his assistant and him had decided to remain platonic.

"Just damn…"


End file.
